However, this does not mean that Jean-Claude Juncker who was really elected was a godsend, Pesek writes.

On the other hand, one can hardly find a more acceptable representative of the European political mainstream than the long-standing prime minister of Luxembourg who has supervised the functioning of the euro, he adds.

When trying to challenge the search for the next EC president, British Prime Minister David Cameron was only pushed into isolation, being branded as a European troublemaker, Pesek writes.

How about Juncker's chances in the future? His predecessor Manuel Barroso seems to have frustrated the hopes placed in him. If his successor is a surprise, it may only be a pleasant surprise, he adds.

The British anti-EU crusade seems to be over, Teodor Marjanovic writes about the British opposition to the new EC president in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

With Juncker's appointment, Cameron was routed as Juncker was backed by almost all of Europe, except for Hungary, Marjanovic writes.

However, while there is no threat of Hungary's leaving the EU, Britain seems to end its story with joining the integration in a few years, he adds.

When Charles de Gaulle ruled France, the country left NATO's military structures in the 1960s, Marjanovic writes.

Many were afraid that this obstinate step might eventually destroy the Western alliance and Europe would be easily swallowed up by the Kremlin, he adds.

However, this did not happen. One cannot now similarly expect the EU to be destroyed in the case of a British good-bye, Marjanovic writes.

The Great War rocked everything with which previous generations lived, opening the road to much more ideologically-motivated bloodsheds and totalitarian regimes, Zbynek Petracek writes on the anniversary of the outbreak of World War One in Lidove noviny (LN).

It destroyed the state Czechs did not consider their own, but that was giving them a good chance for their own evolution, Petracek writes.

Czechs have profited from all the three major conflicts of the 20th century. They were pushed into the three big wars on the wrong side, but in the end they benefited from all of them, he adds.

After World War One, they gained their own, independent state, after World War Two, they ethnically purged their country from ethnic Germans and after the Cold War, they received the Western legitimacy by being admitted to NATO and the EU, Petracek writes.

Even Joseph Schweik could hardly imagine this when listening to the news on the death of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, he adds.